The price of crude oil fell overnight on the New York Mercantile Exchange to less than 127 dollars, which is almost 10 dollars per barrel lower than the record registered last week. The decrease was caused by the worries that the record fuel prices will cut consumption just as the US driving season is getting started.

Even if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said last week that it would keep the production at the same levels up until September, the prices went down after the US gasoline pump prices reached an all-time high on May 26.

The continuous rise in the fuel prices, along with the housing slumped caused the consumer confidence to reach the lowest level since October 1992, according to a report released on Tuesday.

If until now the soaring fuel prices did not seriously affect the common people, now the rise has become so big that it is not possible to ignore it, since it started being felt by everybody.

In New York on Wednesday, crude oil prices fell by 1.95 dollars to 126.90 dollars per barrel, while heating oil prices decreased 0.0342 cents to reach 3.765 dollars per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices dropped 0.0269 cents to 3.3561 dollars per gallon and the prices of natural gas rose 0.07 cents to 11.731 dollars per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price across the United States for a gallon of unleaded gasoline jumped to a record of 3.944 dollars, compared to Tuesday's price of 3.937 dollars, the AAA said.